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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Rookie Pitchers and a Rookie Candidate

With all the terrible news from all over the world, Betty was slouching numb yesterday, and even left work early with a psycho-somatic headache.

But this morning on the subway platform, she saw back-page headlines about the Yankees and Mets, and felt a little better. In short, Betty ALWAYS feels better when it's baseball season.

And here's something more: Two Yankee rookie pitchers, Chase Wright and Kei Igawa, have kept scores low and won games with the team for two nights in a row. Betty never thought she would feel so elated to see someone younger than her (Wright is 24) winning games for her team.

From today's New York Times:

Catcher Jorge Posada said that he had to talk to Wright early in Tuesday’s game to calm him down.

“It seemed like he wasn’t even breathing at times,” Posada said.

“I’m a rookie, but I don’t feel like a rookie,” Igawa said through an interpreter. “There are a lot of expectations.”

Of course there are. This is a team that feels like the have to apologize for not winning championships. But there's a reason the Yanks can average 5 or 6 runs per game and still not win-- because the other team scores 7 or 8.

The Yanks' problem has always been pitching. Specifically, the team seems to love shelling out money for big names who don't deliver. Randy Johnson was an embarassment. Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano can't stay healthy. Pettite is throwing well, but he doesn't look like Peter Asen anymore. All of this is a problem.

Where does that leave us? With rookies. And who says that's a bad thing? It's not like the pitcher is out there all alone:

“This team consists of the best lineup in the world,” Igawa said of a lineup that had 14 hits, three by Derek Jeter. “I’m happy to have that support.”